At around 11pm last night (5 May 2008), RS.com stopped responding. All requests were being timed out.
Today, same problem. Rapidshare.com wouldn't load at all.
I switched from OpenDNS to the local DNS, but it didn't work. I then tried it via a proxy - Rapidshare.com was working. I suspected something was wrong on my side as there were no reports of Rapidshare being down elsewhere.
I pinged Rapidshare.com... & the server responded perfectly. With a sinking feeling, I realised what was happening! I had dreaded it but I never imagined it happening - certainly not with the FUP being implemented - Orange wouldn't need to go that far...
Just one last confirmation. I went on DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com & tried Rapidshare.com
No way!
Orange Mauritius ISP is blocking RAPIDSHARE.COM!!!
If the Fair Usage Policy was a stab in the back, then Orange's decision to block RS.com is like being sent to the guillotine.
Here's a simple analogy.
As everyone knows, the M1 highway going through Port Louis is the busiest road in Mauritius. Half of the day, the M1 is paralysed by traffic jams. So one day, the Gov decides to get rid of all traffic jams by just closing down the M1. No more highway, no traffic jams - the miracle solution!
This is exactly what Orange is doing - by blocking the websites people use the most! Orange first started by limiting your traffic usage with the FUP (with everyone still being kept in the dark), & now they’ve just blocked the most popular file-hoster in the world.
Possible targets on Orange's
- YouTube (Mauritian people watch toooo many videos & that's unhealthy for them – make them watch MBC instead)
- Facebook (Someone created a group called Orange sucks & that's heresy - can't be tolerated!)
- Hi5 (Can't let everyone chat online - block them & they'll use Orange mobile instead)
- Wikipedia (There's a fake wiki about Orange blocking Wikipedia)
- Megaupload (Cannot not block MU while blocking RS.com)
- Mediafire, FileFactory, Megashares, RS.de & 4shared? (5 more for the road...)
- themediaguru.blogspot.com (That guy’s flaming the cash-cows against Orange - better block him)
& no, I’m not joking. What Orange is doing is not traffic management but Internet Censorship. Who knows tomorrow, Orange may become the Great Firewall of Mauritius - restricting your Internet connection speed… & also restricting access to information on the Internet!
SAFE is being overwhelmed - that is indeed a fact. But Orange has chosen the worst possible way to counter the lack of bandwidth by “policing” Internet access. Instead of investing on increasing network capacity, they are trying to restraint it (until the arrival of the EASSY?). Why not invest into more fibre optic links? Why not implement island-wide FTTH? Lack of vision, perhaps? Or are FT puppets vetoing it? (No doubt, they’d want to get back those millions spent in the rebranding)
Orange has decided to restrict access to RS.com without informing any of the users. Such a restriction may be completely illegal (remember the Facebook episode?). The whole point of blocking Rapidshare is that there’s this myth that file sharing takes up most of the bandwidth in Mauritius. According to this Wired.com report, ISPs never release their network usage stats & most studies have shown that P2P usage consists only 30% of the web traffic.
Albeit Rapidshare isn’t P2P & that Mauritius’ traffic pattern can’t be compared with the US - but it’s definite that the most traffic is used by gamers & normal web browsing & downloading - Web 2.0 & video-sharing sites like YouTube easily consume half of that traffic. Rapidshare & other file-hosters play a minimal role in there. I agree Rapidshare hosts unauthorised content, but the majority are legal downloads!!! Why Rapidshare is so popular is because it has the fastest upload & download speeds - even as a free user! What will happen to Rapidshare premium users? Will Orange refund their accounts, since they cannot access it anymore?
Everyone knows Orange uses package headers to shape your torrents, so you had to encrypt it or switch to file-hosting. But now with Rapidshare.com gone… should we start living on proxies? If you check the Alexa Mauritius Top 100 sites, Rapidshare.com comes at 8th place… behind YouTube & the social networks. Will Orange block these sites as well because of their high traffic usage? That’s completely irrational! Without releasing any traffic pattern figures, Orange may well be blowing up the bandwidth problem out of proportions so that they can permanently limit our traffic?!?!
We must not allow Orange to create a precedent, so that in the future, our basic human rights of Liberty & Freedom of Expression won’t be at stake. No one wants Mauritius to be featured as one of the “enemies of the Internet” on a Wikipedia page like the one on Internet Censorship. If we want to become a cyber-island, we should promote Internet freedom instead of stifling it. Except that with Orange, it seems we are going back in time to the Middle Ages of dial-up. Not only is the world leaving us behind… but we are running backwards!
We are currently facing an energy crisis, a food crisis & high inflation - & now an INTERNET CRISIS!
Act now before it’s too late!!! Let’s say NO to ORANGE! (Orange can’t bribe us as they bribed MT employees with free mobile phones!)
I’m currently working on a petition, which should (hopefully) make Orange reconsider its decision. Let’s fight Orange!
PS: Orange has managed to bring me out of my 2-week blogging exile (coz of exams), but I’m really busy. I need to weight my words well before I publish the demands for the petition (by Friday perhaps), so stay tuned. Do comment!
Note about FTTH: There are reports that Orange has begun testing FTTH (Fibre-to-the-Home) in Quatre-Bornes & that some businesses have already been connected! Can anyone confirm this?
Blog Reactions:
GeekScribes - Rapidshare.com DOWN in Mauritius only?
Tushal - Orange V/s Rapidshare
UPDATE:
Wednesday 7 May 2008 - 10:30 AM
Rapidshare.com is back up again... Has Orange removed the http blocking? (Let's wait & see...)
UPDATE 2:
Yes, Rapidshare.com is definitely up & running again! &... it wasn't because of server problems or whatsoever... ORANGE DID BLOCK RAPIDSHARE.COM!!!
I knew there was something wrong when it was clear that only Mauritius was having such problems. It's now confirmed that the restriction started 2-3 days ago, not affecting all users at once - since it was being blocked region-wise. & the only one who can do that is your ISP, i.e. Orange.
But Orange had to stop CENSORING Rapidshare today when they were flooded by complaints from not only home users but important business users as well. & at 10:30 AM, all was well! :)
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Yo carrot man! RS is working fine now (23h45 on 6th may).. :P
It might have been server issues there. I can access the downloads, but the speed is soooo slow! 0.2KBps! YESS! 0.2 KBps! AWESOME! :P
I need to blog about this! I don't think there's any censorship going. Probably RS going down. Will see...
wai wai..mo ti koner sa..ki orange in fan so kk..
sel facon pou servi RS c .......
mo prefer pa dire li.sinon orange pou ale block sa..
ceki in envie koner comment.just contact media guru..mo pou faire li..
wai..pou petition la..MO LA MEME..suis always present..orange pe mari fan kk..mo ti meme pense pou ale phn ban bourik cc la pou ale ask zot..mais..pfffff..banla pou sante meme sanT..zot pa pou courant..jamais banla ti kone kitchose! ! !
pfffff..anyway..mo mari encoler..
1st..li monitor to connection.v dire..in other terms..li geter ki site to pe aler ect..
which is against the right of privacy..mais comment to koner..ici c maurice..tou rouler meme ici! ! !
tou meme bato meme..
Hope ki sa problem la solve sinon bez beser pou ena..
bsn hit orange kot sa pou faire plis dimal! !POCKET.image twa.si 5000 abonee adsl/myT pa gagne zot bill! ! ! ! in arive ler..ki nu stand up for each other..nepli kpv laise aler..
@Inf
It's being blocked region-wise, which by now, i'm sure you've already been blocked. :P
RS isn't down... we are down! :(
@Tushal
I say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! Yes, we need to group ourselves & face off Orange. :@
(I'm busy until the 16th... but after the 16th, I will deal with Zorange) :@
@inf..pa per..biento sa ti 2kb la osi to pa pou gagner! ! !LOL
@carrot-->nek faire koner twa..mo la meme..taler mo pou ale phn ban bourik la..pou ale prnd ban info..mais mo koner..as usual..ki answer mo pou gagner..pfffff
tou dimoune pe mari encoler..{ban ceki ena zorange pouri ek ceki souvent lor RS}
this time..mo croire pou ena bel tapaze la..
bsn faire zorange koner..DONT mess with us.mwa mo dire si nu petition pa marcher..bsn hit zot kot sa pou hurt zot mari much..POCKETS..si resi gagne 500..1000 dimoune ki refuz paye zot internet bill quan ti zorange pa unblock RS..b sa..pou 1 mari strt sa..2ja ban frds ceki abroad pa cntnt zorange ditou..pfffff
mo bsn words pe fini tou..telment mo dan ner la..
@Tushal
My bill's on Direct Debit... but i can block it.
If Orange ignores our petition... we can still boycott them by hook or by crook...
Imagine all Orange mobile users switching to Emtel. :P
(That's one method, but there's more drastic methods...)
Nous bizin rallier tou nou bane camarade, colleg, parent, etc.
Bizin fer ene zournal coné.
Sinon sa situation pou passe inapercu.
Bizin arret sa vite.
Orange pane perdi letemp.
Depi 5 ans France Telecom pe pran l'argent dimoune mais zot pa ine upgrade zot reseau.
Aster la zot pe rode solution facile mais illegale.
I totally agree with u guys!
Orange can't block access to rapidshare just because they don't have enough bandwidth to provide us all with full internet speed.
Many times i didn't get the download speed that i'm supposed to get and now this!!!
rapidshare is working now ,i think as i'm able to download through rapidshare without any proxy or whatever.
@anonymous
Yes!!!! Rapidshare is BACK! :D
RS ti down wiz evey1! I was not able to dwload since 2 dayz...now it's ok! It was really a prob wiz MT because my bro in Netherlands cud use RS!
now this is funny...... I have a google blogger account I don't remember ever creating..... this must be the googlelife. the glife(tm)
anyway,
>>No more highway, no traffic jams
I lolled.
but it could be be true. they'd just have to bicycle their way to port louis. healthy, economically and environmentally friendly and it'd be a middle finger raised to stupid government policies. Myself I've cut through sugarcane fields while walking from rosehill to the UoM.
but seriously I don't think Orange is blocking rapidshare. maybe limiting it but it could as well be a lot of users connecting to the download servers at the same time. Who knows. maybe RS has a FUP of it's own per ip range or country.
I'm not trying to defend Orange, I'm just saying this one could just have been a coincidence. and almost entirely not their fault.
on the blacklisting of sites, that can indeed happen. It has happened for facebook once. But I read somewhere that it wasn't the ISP itself who had done the blocking but something above (ICTA maybe?)
@Ketwaroo
Actually, i was also quite intrigued by whether it was a technical glitch or not?
However, on this occasion, Orange did BLOCK RS.com & removed the block when someone complained to them. (Just got that news...)
As for Facebook, it was ICTA who ordered all ISPs to block it, while our PM's profile was being removed. :|
RS is back up. I suspected a server failure or similar issue since I've seen RS go down before. Anyways, it's good to see that no censorship was in place.
Maybe it's not for now... it might be in a chaotic future where ISPs rule the users and if you are caught downloading, you are given the death penalty! :P
(ok.. that was weird. :P)
Finally RS is back..and mwa..am back to download! ! ! ! !
who could be that some one who complained! ! !
hmmmmmmmm
smthg mo in blier..bsn dire sa some one la..THANKS>.
Whoever that someone is... he's indeed one very powerful someone to have been able to (single-handedly) make Orange change their decision! :P
Yeah, he deserves all our thanks! :D
I cant go on hotmail and hi5..WTF..
Hotmail (mail.live.com) is Ok, but Hi5.com is down (for real!).
I don't think Orange would be blocking Hi5... LOL :P
LOL
ZOT BIZIN CASH KILI ZORANZ MO DIR ZOT MOI, BAN BETA..
btw..anyone watched FURTV lor MTV??
Lapeno mari niice..chek sa lor youtube..i dunno if i can send link here..but just google it
Si RS is being blocked..kifer zot pa pipi r zoranz?
kan zot pran 1 contrat internet(if thats the case in Mauritius), zot kav cancle contrat la in aft 1 mois i fink..zot kav chekr hws the speed for one month and lerla either pipi lor orange or manz zoranz! ;-)
sinnon..use the art of bargaining..si zot r MT dpi lontan..call customer service n dir ki zot p decide pu kiter..li pu ask u y..coz biein n dir ki zotp get better deals elsewhere(if there is so in mauritius)..bizin cone fer sa..
i hope zot p compran ki mo p dir..it works here in UK..moi mem ti p pay £15 pu 2MB r AOL with unlimited landline calls..mone call them n say ki mo p change ISP..give me my MAC number..mo p al r 02 ki p donne £10 at 8MBs..zot dir ki 02 pa bon n those sorts of fings..juz to make u as a customer stay with them..lerla zot in give moi 1 deal..£9.99 8MBs(max seki ena lor my present line though its real BS;-( )+ unlimited calls to UK,Europe and USA..but bez..pna Mauriuts..;-(
well im juz informin u guys that try playin with them..if thats the word..
good luck
and si ena pu kass KILI..mo lamem..
amen zot sabre..dubois..couto.nu casse kili!
lOl
just kidding
well if u wana stand up against them..it shud b sumfin HARD on and sumfin democratic and real..si zot dir li p block RS..zot p kav met zot mem dan problem showin ki zot p fer illegal downloads thoug RS uploads are both legit n illegit!
well gud luck
this petition fing..seems gay..they wont give a damn honestly..better use business tactics.
good luck!
@anonymous
LOL
That wouldn't work in Mauritius... Imagine yourself threatening them to go from your 512kbps connection to a 64k Nomad connection (that disconnects every 10 min!).
Or tell them that I'm going to MTML 144kbps (pay per minute!) LOL :P
carrotmadman6 to mari bon..mone fek kumans lir to ban lartik!mwena mo blog ek mo site..mai kan mem mo pa kav fer cki to fer!:) 10/10 man!Orange sucks..mai ene kikaine ti mention ki orange pu monitor to connection ek koner ki site to servi!sa c fo,li pu monitor to bandwidth only!pa to ban site to visiter!!
zot ine aplik FUP sans mem fer nu koner..mo bandwidth usage monthly al lor 60GB..pfff bon,anyway,got to go..mo rs ti bloker mwasi..ti gagn mari nerf..seryer sa,to tial rcpl,mwa si parey..weirdly,kan mone lir to lartik mone douT to tial rcpl,pa koner kuma :P fallai lor facebook mo truv confirmation la!bizar sa!xD enfin pa koner si vraiem twal laba ou non mai kan mem to ene top!:D contine ladan mem,to pwal loin!:)
Thanks for the support!
Yeah, i'm an ex-Royalist! :P
i want to say that what the guy from england is saying is not wrong..BUT in mauritius what ISPs do we have..only Orange...the other nomad mtml etc are just no match to orange..orange p fer monopol....leaving us no choice....so now i ask wat choice do we have???
so i browsed a bit and i found this
its really worth looking @
http://www.justwerks.com/a-question-isp-control
p.s. si ena pu leve bezer ek petition mo la meme...
@sleepholic
Ok, i've went through the post & what it's suggesting is same to what a model like the CEB - pay per use. The more you use, the more you pay.
But Orange will never implement such a service because their service is designed to con people. Over-promise & deliver nothing! :|
the pay per use might be good...
except that instead of getting fucked by the quality of service, there's a very high chance we'll be fucked by the pricing. Just like they did back in the age of dail up.
assuming you use an Myt line 24/7 (as it is advertised you can), that's 256*60*60*24*30 on average per month
divide that by about Rs900 for an Myt line (and some extra calcutation for price in Mb where an Mb is 1024*1024 bytes and not, as those fuckers will try to con us, 1000*1000)
and you get about 90Megabyte per rupee.
so a reasonable price would be 1 cent per megabyte or a more user friendly, Rs. 10 per gigabyte. for everybody. no more fancy unlimited packages where you could pay less for more.
but you can bet those stupid motherfuckers will try things like Rs 100 per Gb and make you may for an extra gigabyte even if you've gone 1 byte over.
another bad thing that could happen is if they really do get to extra sumbarine lines from india/china like they ought to and instead of decreasing the prices, will continue to charge us at the same rate for as long as possible.
One major difference with the CEB is that they do not have equally high maintainance costs, they do not have to import fuel to power their routers. In fact what's draining most money in their system is the cost of running a big enough complaints department to take care of all the grievances of their customers. Which they obviously already are failing to do.
Another major difference is that unlike the CEB, which will pay you back if you generate power back into the distribution network, you won't get compensated for the data you upload.
and if they do count your uploaded traffic, will it have a different pricing mechanism than download?
As far as I know, measuring broadband usage per user per any given period of time is a horribly complicated business. It might become much harder if the telecommunication section gets properly liberalised.
there already is a self care thing on MT's website that allows to to check your currently monthly usage. Of course are you going to trust that figure is something else.
you can guess that by my tone I'm getting really crap connection right now.
@Ketwaroo
Pay-per-use sucks... just check those 1GB limited offers... Rs. 0.50/MB - Rs. 512/GB.
& yes, there's this question of whether MT will decrease the prices when more fibre is connected?
Ever since SAFE was connected, the bandwidth hasn't changed & MT is still paying the same price.
Over the years, only the ADSL prices have decreased. So actually users have been paying & are still paying excessively! :|
I can't access the self-care? I've got ADSL 128k. I guess it's the service where you need to collect your login & pass at customer care centre?
lol yeah, I never understood how anybody would ever want that 1Gb limited thing.
well pay per use would work if the tariffs were reasonanble. The Rs 10 (or less) per gigabyte would be great since most of us with 128k and Myt won't be going over 40 gb per month. With our crap connections, we can't possibly lose.
just imagine, you decide to "fast" (no porn, no video games, no movies) for a month and only use your internet for checking your email and reading the news. Only Rs 10 on your bill (Hah! fuck you Orange!).
the extremely heavy downloaders will be taking it up the arse though (which would be fair I think).
Two problems though: we would have to monitor our own usage. And if they suddenly upgrade our crappy connection to something fast and reliable and then keep the same pricing, we'd end up paying a heck of a lot more without even wanting to.
about the selfcare page... It's something like selfcare.telecomplus.net. you probably need to call them up for your username and password.
hey, did you know dailup is now about 27 cents per minute(midnight to 7am)? that almost sounds tempting.
hi...Rapidshare problem is due to RS.com servers overloading...Orange is not blocking anything even with the FUP they only decrease your surfing speed not your download speed...if you get error 404 or page cannot be displayed its Rs.com fault..same happened to rapishare.de and they moved to rapidshare.com...
If you start to get low download speed from Rs.com as a free user during the day..this is also due to rapishare limiting access to his servers cause you don't have a 24/24 7/7 priority dwonload speed...to always get your full download speed, buy a premium account and you'll see the difference...if you have a 256,512,1mb or 2mb you get your full Kbps download and thats really great....
We'll never really know whether Orange did block RS.com or not (I need a 2nd opinion to confirm it), but since RS.com was only down in Mauritius at that time, that's the only possible explanation that comes to mind.
Yeah. the difference between RS.com Free & Premium users is enormous! When I use my premium acc, I get full 16KB/s (on my 128k) & as a Free user... only 8KB/s!
Btw, Microsoft's website being so fast is due to Akamai servers being hosted in Mauritius. Read more here. ;)
Ya at least someone who knows about akamai hosting servers...
Ya as for rapidshare Orange was not blocking anything..was server problem...as on that day i contacted Rs.com and they asked me to wait for a few moments for the connection to be back online and that's exactly what happened....
Ya by the way thanks for the info on akamai.. Carrot..
I'm happy with orange as long as it does not decrease my download speed from those downloading servers...i really don't mind taking days for my pc to open hotmail or any web sites as long as i can download at full bandwidth 24/24 and 7/7 so.........
ya and for the Akamai say thanks to NETpc....
You're welcome! :P
NetPC? Hmmm... I didn't think about that. Ya, maybe! ;)
Anyone got any news or beta testing on opera mobile 9.5 for symbian 3rd....
Or
any link to skyfire
Opera mobile 9.5 and skyfire:
Great application that will allow your symbian 3rd edition phone to render webpages exactly as the desktop browsers do...which means, video Flv,youtube,dailymotion and any streaming media websites..just as on the iphone...OPera mobile 9.5 is currently not available for symbian but skyfire is out only for US users..so if anyone got this let us know and do provide a download link///
Opera Mobile is still at v8.65 for S60v3. (Download link)
As for Skyfire, go to http://www.skyfire.com/register & enter any number (or preferably a US number) as you phone number & you'll get the download link on your mail! ;)
rapidshare is not being blocked in the uk by orange at least there site isnt when i tried today to purchase a 3 day pass using my mobile phone (contract) orange wouldnt entertain the payment. im pretty unhappy if i want to buy a premium service i should be allowed to. now i must use a public phone for this 3 pass as its for an indian friend of mine orange sort yourself out asap or you will lose customers rapidly
Ban trou mais rapidshare pe functionner
Noobs orange is the best Internet ISP in Mauritius so just shut up and don't complain when you have unlimited access try using techniques like me and download from rs at 2mb/s on a myt 512kb/s
@Anonymous
& I presume you wouldn't want to share your "hack" for the benefit of us noobs?
:)
asdl business 512kb= Rs 2400 + VAT
MyT 2MB= Rs 1650 + VAT
Bloody sucker MT
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